Cancer is a serious health problem throughout the world. For example, cancer incidence in the U.S. has increased 30% during the past 30 years, and is expected to continue to increase into the next century. This is attributable to the increased prevalence of cigarette smoking in women compared to men, general aging of the population, and enhanced diagnostic capabilities, as well as potential decreases in mortality from other causes. As a result, an extensive number of research endeavors has been undertaken in an effort to develop therapies appropriate to the treatment and alleviation of cancer in humans.
In the chemotherapeutic area, research has been conducted to develop anti-tumor agents effective against various types of cancer. Oftentimes, anti-tumor agents which have been developed and found effective against cancer cells are, unfortunately, also toxic to normal cells. This toxicity manifests itself in weight loss, nausea, vomiting, hair loss, fatigue, itching, hallucinations, loss of appetite, etc., upon administration of the anti-tumor agent to a patient in need of cancer chemotherapy.
Furthermore, conventionally used chemotherapeutic agents do not have the effectiveness desired or are not as broadly effective against different types of cancers as desired. As a result, a great need exists for chemotherapeutic agents which are not only more effective against all types of cancer, but which have a higher degree of selectivity for killing cancer cells with no or minimal effect on normal healthy cells. In addition, highly effective and selective anti-tumor agents, in particular, against cancers of the colon, bladder, prostate, stomach, pancreas, breast, lung, liver, brain, testis, ovary, cervix, skin, vulva and small intestine are desired. Moreover, anti-tumor activity against colon, breast, lung and prostate cancers as well as melanomas are particularly desired because of the lack of any particular effective therapy at the present time.
(+)-Discodermolide is a novel polyketide natural product that was isolated from extracts of the marine sponge Discodermia dissoluta by researchers at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution (HBOI) (Gunasekera S P, Gunasekera M, Longley R E, Schulte G K. Discodermolide: a new bioactive polyhydroxylated lactone from the marine sponge Discodermia dissoluta. [published erratum appears in J. Org. Chem. 1991;56:1346]. J. Org. Chem. 1990;55:4912–15.). Discodermolide lacks obvious structural resemblance to paclitaxel, yet it shares with paclitaxel (the active substance in the drug Taxol) the ability to stabilize microtubules. In mechanism-based assays, discodermolide is more effective than paclitaxel. In fact, of the handful of compounds known to induce polymerization of purified tubulin, discodermolide is the most potent. However, microtubules, the major structural component in cells, are not simple equilibrium polymers of tubulin. They exist as regulated GTP-driven dynamic assemblies of heterodimers of α and β tubulin. Although the dynamics are relatively slow in interphase cells, upon entering mitosis, the rate of growing and shortening increases 20- to 100-fold—the average microtubule turns over half the tubulin subunits every ten seconds. This change in rate allows the cytoskeletal microtubule network to dismantle and a bipolar spindle-shaped array of microtubules to assemble. The spindle attaches to chromosomes and moves them apart. The response to complete suppression of microtubule dynamics in cells is death. However, mitotic cells are more sensitive and the tolerance threshold appears to be cell-type specific. Molecules like paclitaxel that bind with high affinity to microtubules disrupt the dynamics process in tumor cells with lethal results even when the ratio of bound drug to tubulin is very low. Discodermolide binds to tubulin competitively with paclitaxel. Since paclitaxel has proven to be useful in treating some cancers, other compounds of the same mechanistic class may have utility against hyperproliferative disorders.
Development of discodermolide or structurally related analogues is hindered by the lack of a reliable natural source of the compound or a feasible synthetic route. Naturally occurring discodermolide is scarce and harvesting the producing organism presents logistical problems. There is an ever-growing need for improved syntheses that enable production of multi-gram amounts of discodermolide and structurally related analogues.